The Minister of Social Development and Sports Zane DeSilva is appealing for community volunteers to be trained in performance coaching as well as the 8 Keys of Excellence in order to support one young person aged 14-17 for an eight month period as their coach.

During an intensive six-day personal development residential course, the young people enrolled in the Mirrors programme will define three goals for themselves. These young people will then work with their coach to keep themselves accountable for their choices, actions and dreams.

“This year we have 35 young people signed up to transform their lives, but are still seeking 10 more Committed Partners to work one-to-one as a performance coach with our young people,” said Mirrors’ Programme Coordinator Kimberley Jackson.

“This six day Mirrors SuperCamp will give students an incredible opportunity to transform their lives. Over the course of the camp, students will explore their beliefs, behaviors and attitudes, define what’s important to them, why they learn the way they do and how to make use of their knowledge to learn and live better.

“But most importantly, Mirrors SuperCamp is about having fun in a safe and supportive environment that supports young people’s ability to develop personally.

“To create the environment necessary for young people to make personal breakthroughs, Mirrors relies on community volunteers. It is the caring and engaging interpersonal relationships between young people and volunteers that ensure Mirrors has maximum impact.”

This year’s students have set some challenging goals, such as “improving my attitude towards school and my teacher, learning to communicate better and speak up more in class, graduating with high honors, and feeling more confident with my friends and about myself.”

The role of a Committed Partner is to:

Act as a life coach to a young person to support them in the goals they have set for themselves and help to embed the 8 Keys of Excellence they have learned about during the Residential component of their programme

Meet weekly face-to-face with your young person for at least 30 minutes. Support students with completing and submitting a weekly report as an update regarding their progress.

Attend 1 weekend session per month

If you are interested in making a difference in the life of a young person in Bermuda and would like to volunteer as a Committed Partner, please contact Mirrors’ Enrolment Manager, Nicola Feldman, on nmfeldman@gov.bm or call the Mirrors office on 294-9298 before October 11th.

To find out more about Mirrors Programme and what it has to offer, please visit the programme website on www.mirrors.bm.